New Zealand driver Scott Dixon gave Acura/Honda a dream LMP1 debut with a stunning final-lap dash to take pole position for Saturday’s 57th annual 12 Hours of Sebring.  

Dixon, the defending Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion, made his first Sebring race appearance quite notable by driving the all-new No. 66 de Ferran XM Radio Acura ARX-02a prototype sports car to the top position in Saturday’s grid over European challengers Audi and Peugeot. 

It was a big day for the Japanese manufacturer with veteran Adrian Fernandez taking his Acura to the pole in the LMP2 class. 

It is the first time since 2005 that a manufacturer has captured both the LMP1 and LMP2 pole positions in the same event. 

This weekend marks Acura’s debut in the LMP1 class in the American Le Mans Series, after two years of competition in the LMP2 category.  Acura won the LMP2 division in its initial Sebring event in 2007. 

Audi’s new diesel powered challenger the R15 also made an impressive debut with multiple 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in the No. 2 Audi taking second place on the grid to edge out arch rival Peugeot.

Nicolas Minnasian was the fastest of the Peugeot coupes just ahead of Mike Rockenfeller’s Audi and David Brabham in another of the new Acuras.

Dixon made his best lap on his final lap during qualifying, with a time of one minute, 45.278 seconds and an average speed of 126.522 miles per hour.   Dixon will team with Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud when the 57th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring begins at 10:30 a.m. [EDT] Saturday.

The legendary Sebring International Raceway was lined with interested spectators Thursday for one of the most anticipated confrontations in Sebring race history with Acura taking on sports-car giants Audi and Peugeot.

The five fastest prototypes were covered by only 281 thousandths of a second in yesterday’s afternoon qualifying session.

In GT1 it was no surprise that a Corvette was on pole as the two American sportscars are the only competitors in the category.

Oliver Gavin captured his 18th career Series pole position and third at Sebring in Corvette Racing’s final 12 Hours race with the GT1 class Corvette C6.R. Gavin’s best lap of 1:57.882 (112.994 mph) beat Jan Magnussen in the second Corvette by 0.321 seconds.

Gavin and Olivier Beretta are looking for their third Sebring victory together and first with new teammate Marcel Fässler. 

Dirk Werner put Farnbacher Loles Racing and Porsche on the GT2 pole in another tight battle. The German’s lap of 2:03.051 (108.248 mph) in the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was enough to knock off Jörg Bergmeister in the first of Flying Lizard Motorsports’ two Porsches by 0.382 seconds.

Live audio coverage of the Sebring 12 hour race can be heard on Radio Le Mans.

In the famous words of “Alan Partridge” Let battle commence!